"Dr. Smith, Professor of Gastroenterology at Pennsylvania State University's College of Medicine, found that two-thirds of the patients in her pilot study went into remission and fully 89% of the group responded to LDN treatment to some degree"

The big problem with the bright, new, shiny drugs for any chronic disorder is that it's a good idea to wait until there have been at least a couple of rounds of studies. It's good that Penn State has decided to chase this, and I sincerely hope they'll get some good data- AND FAST.

With diseases that tend to undergo remissive episodes like Crohn's, it's much tougher to gauge the efficacy of drugs like naltrexone. A three month study simply won't cut it. Unfortunately, longer studies also means a longer time before it can be handed down to patients.

Let's also not forget that for a chronic disorder like Crohn's, where a patient could spend years or even decades on the drug, some long-term safety data might be very nice. While naltrexone is a safe drug, it's not tough to imagine strange disorders popping up in Crohn's patients on LDN- stuff that might not get caught until 2-3 years after the drug is out there.

That having been said, I'm hopeful that something good will come of it. It would seem a relatively inexpensive treatment. If it proves effective and safe in long studies- perfect.

You have to remember that there was no placebo and it was a very small number of patients. I wouldn't be surprised that if they had a large multi-center controlled trial, less than 50% would go into remission. It had no effect on me (like everything else).

I know a lady who I talk to on dailystrength.com and she started LDN a few months ago and went from 15+ BM's a day down to 3 and she has no pain. I'm hoping I can get my hands on it, but it's a little harder up here in Canada where doctors are really strict with what they give out. I have a few docs up my sleeve so hopefully one of them will prescribe it to me.